2009 Stories 121 - 128
The first two can be heard on the audiobook Road Rage, narrated by Stephen Lang.
121. Duel by Richard Matheson This is a classic of the horror genre. Told from the point of view of a driver on a back California road, who ends up in a fight for control of the road with a trucker whose face and thoughts we never see. I wasn't impressed with Lang's reading of it, but the story itself is full of incredibly tension.
122. Throttle by Stephen King & Joe Hill Father and son authors team up (for the first time, I think) for a story that is thematically a sequel to Duel, although it takes place on a different stretch of two-lane highway in a different state. This time, the protagonists are a motorcycle gang of sorts, including a father and son with very different military backgrounds. Of course, there is a faceless trucker as the protagonist. For reasons that will become apparent in the story, I don't want to refer to anyone as "good guys" or "bad guys." It's a strong story, and Lang sounds more comfortable with this one.
The rest of these are from various New Yorkers from the past few months:
123. The Limner by Julian Barnes, from the January 5, 2009 New Yorker, is a story about perception, I guess. The main character is a deaf portraitist who travels from community to community taking commissions. His subjects often get annoyed that they must communicate with him by writing their comments in a journal. Some also get annoyed when he prefers their servants' company to their own.
124. Al Roosten by George Saunders from the February 2, 2009 New Yorker, is a very "Walter Mitty-ish" tale but without the joy that character seemed to have. Al spends most of the story imagining how situations will play out, how everything will work out for him in the end, but he doesn't have that spark that makes you think something actually will work out for him eventually.
125. She's The One by Tessa Hadley from the March 23, 2009 New Yorker is about grief and how we recover ourselves. The main character's younger brother committed suicide before the story starts, and in her interaction with someone she meets through a job, she begins to process her grief and her determination to be on her own.
126. Wiggle Room by David Foster Wallace from the March 9, 2009 New Yorker. I hated this story. It's short, it's artsy, it's everything I really don't like about David Foster Wallace's work (which is everything those who like his work love). Perhaps this will come across as speaking ill of the dead, but if I never read another David Foster Wallace story, I won't miss them.
127. A Tiny Feast by Chris Adrian, from the April 20, 2009 New Yorker, is a story about parents dealing with the terminal illness of their young son. The twist (and with a Chris Adrian story there pretty much always is one) is that the in-denial parents are Titania and Oberon, and the child is a human child they swapped with a changeling several years earlier. The story is nicely developed, and the emotions are real even if the parents are faeries.
128. Ghosts by Edwidge Danticat, from the November 24, 2008 New Yorker, is one of several I have sitting on a pile waiting for me to get around to them. This one has to do with how hard it is to escape the pull of gangs in Haiti. Even if a member of your family doesn't belong to a gang, your family's livelihood may depend on their patronage. And sometimes, that can work against you.
121. Duel by Richard Matheson This is a classic of the horror genre. Told from the point of view of a driver on a back California road, who ends up in a fight for control of the road with a trucker whose face and thoughts we never see. I wasn't impressed with Lang's reading of it, but the story itself is full of incredibly tension.
122. Throttle by Stephen King & Joe Hill Father and son authors team up (for the first time, I think) for a story that is thematically a sequel to Duel, although it takes place on a different stretch of two-lane highway in a different state. This time, the protagonists are a motorcycle gang of sorts, including a father and son with very different military backgrounds. Of course, there is a faceless trucker as the protagonist. For reasons that will become apparent in the story, I don't want to refer to anyone as "good guys" or "bad guys." It's a strong story, and Lang sounds more comfortable with this one.
The rest of these are from various New Yorkers from the past few months:
123. The Limner by Julian Barnes, from the January 5, 2009 New Yorker, is a story about perception, I guess. The main character is a deaf portraitist who travels from community to community taking commissions. His subjects often get annoyed that they must communicate with him by writing their comments in a journal. Some also get annoyed when he prefers their servants' company to their own.
124. Al Roosten by George Saunders from the February 2, 2009 New Yorker, is a very "Walter Mitty-ish" tale but without the joy that character seemed to have. Al spends most of the story imagining how situations will play out, how everything will work out for him in the end, but he doesn't have that spark that makes you think something actually will work out for him eventually.
125. She's The One by Tessa Hadley from the March 23, 2009 New Yorker is about grief and how we recover ourselves. The main character's younger brother committed suicide before the story starts, and in her interaction with someone she meets through a job, she begins to process her grief and her determination to be on her own.
126. Wiggle Room by David Foster Wallace from the March 9, 2009 New Yorker. I hated this story. It's short, it's artsy, it's everything I really don't like about David Foster Wallace's work (which is everything those who like his work love). Perhaps this will come across as speaking ill of the dead, but if I never read another David Foster Wallace story, I won't miss them.
127. A Tiny Feast by Chris Adrian, from the April 20, 2009 New Yorker, is a story about parents dealing with the terminal illness of their young son. The twist (and with a Chris Adrian story there pretty much always is one) is that the in-denial parents are Titania and Oberon, and the child is a human child they swapped with a changeling several years earlier. The story is nicely developed, and the emotions are real even if the parents are faeries.
128. Ghosts by Edwidge Danticat, from the November 24, 2008 New Yorker, is one of several I have sitting on a pile waiting for me to get around to them. This one has to do with how hard it is to escape the pull of gangs in Haiti. Even if a member of your family doesn't belong to a gang, your family's livelihood may depend on their patronage. And sometimes, that can work against you.